Fish are where you find 'em – meaning that anglers must go where the fish are if they expect to catch any. Which sounds simple in theory, but in practice isn't.
Sometimes, fish-hunting expeditions turn into life- endangering adventures that later make great fish tales – punctuated with nervous laughter.
That's the case with the 26 first- and third-person true stories by professional and recreational anglers in "Fishing's Greatest Misadventures," edited by Tyler McMahon and Paul Diamond (Casagrande, $15.95, 204 pages).
Thumbing through it, we read a few tales that made us appreciate the relative safety of being on land. Note that all the anglers survived their ordeals.
In "Aussie Sleigh Ride," a charter-boat skipper straps himself into a fighting chair in preparation for battling a great white shark he's hooked. Because of a "mechanical oversight" by the first mate, the chair abruptly comes loose and flies over the boat transom, taking the skipper with it. He's dragged underwater, towed (chair and all) by the shark. Quick thinking on his part saved his life.
Then there's the one about the angler on a marlin-fishing trip, "Out of the Blue." His buddy hooks a billfish, which makes a run toward their boat and leaps out of the water. "I remember seeing the fish in the air ... then the world went black," he writes. "The (800-pound) marlin had speared me at the apex of its leap and carried me 15 feet in the air before drilling me headfirst into the water."
Moving from ocean to lake, let's just say that ice fishing is a specialized sport requiring a ton of gear, including a wood shack and a wood-burning stove. Fishers cut a hole in the ice, position the shack over it and drop their baited hooks into the icy water while trying to stay warm in front of the stove.
In "Demolition Northern Pike," the author writes: "The (hooked) fish made a monumental lunge (and) the rushing line tangled around the legs of the card table and sent it spinning ... into the stove. The coffee pot and stew kettle crashed. The stove tipped on its side, spilling fire, which ignited the back wall of the shack. The flames spread rapidly to the roof."
Other stories recall perils of different sorts – seasickness, extreme weather, close encounters with giant catfish and sharks, life on a factory trawler, a surreal fishing trip to China, an face-off with an enraged bear while fishing in an Alaska river, and the like.
The collection is just right for anglers who have similar yarns of their own and who can identify with these stories. After all, fishers love to share their yarns. We're looking forward to the sequel.
Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni, (916) 321-1128.
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